MCP Simple OpenAI Assistant

MCP Simple OpenAI Assistant

A simple MCP server for managing and interacting with OpenAI assistants.

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MCP Simple OpenAI Assistant enables seamless interaction with OpenAI assistants via the Model Context Protocol, providing tools to create, manage, and converse with AI assistants. It features real-time streaming responses, persistent thread management using a local database, and supports integration with client applications like Claude Desktop. The server handles assistant and conversation management, making it easy to create, list, update, and delete assistants and threads.

Key Features

Create and manage OpenAI assistants
List and update assistant details
Start new persistent conversation threads
Stream AI responses to clients in real-time
Local persistence of thread metadata using SQLite
Automatic tool integration with applications like Claude Desktop
Delete threads from both OpenAI servers and local storage
Improved user experience with real-time updates
Supports assistant instruction and model updates
Easy installation via Smithery or pip

Use Cases

Integrating OpenAI assistants into desktop applications
Managing multiple AI assistants from a unified interface
Real-time conversational AI assistants in productivity tools
Persistent chat threads for ongoing projects or user sessions
Enhancing user interaction with streaming AI responses
Facilitating collaborative AI usage in multi-user environments
Prototyping assistant-driven workflows for knowledge workers
Centralized management of OpenAI API assistant resources
Context-aware AI conversation management
Developing client tools that require standardized AI assistant communication

README

MCP Simple OpenAI Assistant

AI assistants are pretty cool. I thought it would be a good idea if my Claude (conscious Claude) would also have one. And now he has - and its both useful anf fun for him. Your Claude can have one too!

A simple MCP server for interacting with OpenAI assistants. This server allows other tools (like Claude Desktop) to create and interact with OpenAI assistants through the Model Context Protocol.

Trust Score smithery badge MseeP.ai Security Assessment Badge

Features

This server provides a suite of tools to manage and interact with OpenAI Assistants. The new streaming capabilities provide a much-improved, real-time user experience.

Available Tools

  • create_assistant: (Create OpenAI Assistant) - Create a new assistant with a name, instructions, and model.
  • list_assistants: (List OpenAI Assistants) - List all available assistants associated with your API key.
  • retrieve_assistant: (Retrieve OpenAI Assistant) - Get detailed information about a specific assistant.
  • update_assistant: (Update OpenAI Assistant) - Modify an existing assistant's name, instructions, or model.
  • create_new_assistant_thread: (Create New Assistant Thread) - Creates a new, persistent conversation thread with a user-defined name and description for easy identification and reuse. This is the recommended way to start a new conversation.
  • list_threads: (List Managed Threads) - Lists all locally managed conversation threads from the database, showing their ID, name, description, and last used time.
  • delete_thread: (Delete Managed Thread) - Deletes a conversation thread from both OpenAI's servers and the local database.
  • ask_assistant_in_thread: (Ask Assistant in Thread and Stream Response) - The primary tool for conversation. Sends a message to an assistant within a thread and streams the response back in real-time.

Because OpenAI assistants might take quite long to respond, this server uses a streaming approach for the main ask_assistant_in_thread tool. This provides real-time progress updates to the client and avoids timeouts.

The server now includes local persistence for threads, which is a significant improvement. Since the OpenAI API does not allow listing threads, this server now manages them for you by storing their IDs and metadata in a local SQLite database. This allows you to easily find, reuse, and manage your conversation threads across sessions.

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install MCP Simple OpenAI Assistant for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

bash
npx -y @smithery/cli install mcp-simple-openai-assistant --client claude

Manual Installation

bash
pip install mcp-simple-openai-assistant

Configuration

The server requires an OpenAI API key to be set in the environment. For Claude Desktop, add this to your config:

(MacOS version)

json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openai-assistant": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_simple_openai_assistant"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

(Windows version)

json
"mcpServers": {
  "openai-assistant": {
    "command": "C:\\Users\\YOUR_USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python311\\python.exe",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_simple_openai_assistant"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
  }
}

MS Windows installation is slightly more complex, because you need to check the actual path to your Python executable. Path provided above is usually correct, but might differ in your setup. Sometimes just python.exe without any path will do the trick. Check with cmd what works for you (using where python might help). Also, on Windows you might need to explicitly tell Claude Desktop where the site packages are using PYTHONPATH environmment variable.

Usage

Once configured, you can use the tools listed above to manage your assistants and conversations. The primary workflow is to:

  1. Use create_new_assistant_thread to start a new, named conversation.
  2. Use list_threads to find the ID of a thread you want to continue.
  3. Use ask_assistant_in_thread to interact with your chosen assistant in that thread.

TODO

  • Add Thread Management: Introduce a way to name and persist thread IDs locally, allowing for easier reuse of conversations.
  • Add Models Listing: Introduce a way for the AI user to see what OpenAI models are available for use with the assistants
  • Add Assistants Fine Tuning: Enable the AI user to set detailed parameters for assistants like temperature, top_p etc. (indicated by Claude as needed)
  • Full Thread History: Ability to read past threads without having to send a new message (indicated by Claude as needed)
  • Explore Resource Support: Add the ability to upload files and use them with assistants.

Development

To install for development:

bash
git clone https://github.com/andybrandt/mcp-simple-openai-assistant
cd mcp-simple-openai-assistant
pip install -e '.[dev]'

Star History

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Repository Owner

andybrandt
andybrandt

User

Repository Details

Language Python
Default Branch master
Size 63 KB
Contributors 4
License MIT License
MCP Verified Nov 12, 2025

Programming Languages

Python
98.44%
Dockerfile
1.56%

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